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idea for a firestarter

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    • LIhikers wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      WiseOldOwl wrote:


      Wow, U actually know something about Survival. Woo - Hoo.
      good to know. next time my flashlight battery dies on my i'll just reach it to my pack and pull out my 2 pound container of crisco.seriously...crisco??? do people still use this stuff? there hasn't been any crisco in my house for at least 30 years.
      Back when I just started out working as an aircraft mechanic, about 3/4 of the way into the last century, we used to use Crisco as a grease on certain parts of turbine engines. It wasn't the manufactures approved lubricant, but every shop had a can of the stuff. One of the older mechanics I work with recently pulled a small can of it out of their toolbox and the younger mechanics didn't believe him when he explained what it was for. I'm not sure they believed even after I confirmed it.
      A gun lube manufacturer is catching all kinds of hell right now for charging $15/oz for canola oil.....

      Google "fireclean canola" for the fiasco if you're so inclined. My computer is losing it's damn mind or I would post a link. When I hit the back arrow it opens a new tab, it won't let me highlight a link in the address bar and if I have two tabs open and click on the one NOT being viewed it closes it......

      P.S. I tortured one of our poor IT nerds so I may well be a victim of sabotage. If that should prove to be the case it will not end well for the IT nerd.
      If your Doctor is a tree, you're on acid.

    • Foresight wrote:

      LIhikers wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      WiseOldOwl wrote:


      Wow, U actually know something about Survival. Woo - Hoo.
      good to know. next time my flashlight battery dies on my i'll just reach it to my pack and pull out my 2 pound container of crisco.seriously...crisco??? do people still use this stuff? there hasn't been any crisco in my house for at least 30 years.
      Back when I just started out working as an aircraft mechanic, about 3/4 of the way into the last century, we used to use Crisco as a grease on certain parts of turbine engines. It wasn't the manufactures approved lubricant, but every shop had a can of the stuff. One of the older mechanics I work with recently pulled a small can of it out of their toolbox and the younger mechanics didn't believe him when he explained what it was for. I'm not sure they believed even after I confirmed it.
      A gun lube manufacturer is catching all kinds of hell right now for charging $15/oz for canola oil.....
      Google "fireclean canola" for the fiasco if you're so inclined. My computer is losing it's damn mind or I would post a link. When I hit the back arrow it opens a new tab, it won't let me highlight a link in the address bar and if I have two tabs open and click on the one NOT being viewed it closes it......

      P.S. I tortured one of our poor IT nerds so I may well be a victim of sabotage. If that should prove to be the case it will not end well for the IT nerd.
      about once a week my computer acts up like that. i have no idea why. a simple reboot and all is well. been doing it for about a year.
      2,000 miler

    • LIhikers wrote:

      max.patch wrote:

      WiseOldOwl wrote:


      Wow, U actually know something about Survival. Woo - Hoo.
      good to know. next time my flashlight battery dies on my i'll just reach it to my pack and pull out my 2 pound container of crisco.seriously...crisco??? do people still use this stuff? there hasn't been any crisco in my house for at least 30 years.
      Back when I just started out working as an aircraft mechanic, about 3/4 of the way into the last century, we used to use Crisco as a grease on certain parts of turbine engines. It wasn't the manufactures approved lubricant, but every shop had a can of the stuff. One of the older mechanics I work with recently pulled a small can of it out of their toolbox and the younger mechanics didn't believe him when he explained what it was for. I'm not sure they believed even after I confirmed it.
      I used it to water proof leather hunting boots when I was a kid......well before Goretex....which, BTW, isn't worth a crap.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • LIhikers wrote:

      Back when I just started out working as an aircraft mechanic, about 3/4 of the way into the last century, we used to use Crisco as a grease on certain parts of turbine engines. It wasn't the manufactures approved lubricant, but every shop had a can of the stuff. One of the older mechanics I work with recently pulled a small can of it out of their toolbox and the younger mechanics didn't believe him when he explained what it was for. I'm not sure they believed even after I confirmed it.

      Ever use bacon grease for cutting fluid? It works pretty well. (It also makes you hungry...)
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • LIhikers wrote:

      No, I almost never have bacon.
      I don't have the discipline to just have a few pieces so I don't have any (usually).
      And having lost almost 30 pounds in the last couple of months I don't want to tempt myself.
      i stayed at the amicalola falls lodge last week one night before i hiked the approach trail. they prepared a fricken MOUNTAIN of bacon (breakfast was buffet) for the 6 of us that were eating there. food cost had to exceed 100% of revenue for that breakfast service.

      i can cook bacon. i pretty much focused on the biscuits and gravy.
      2,000 miler

    • Well Ponder this... you do not need Candles, Crisco, or Wax.

      Folks 100,000 years ago the biggest hunting invention was Pine Pitch. Yea tree sap. It saved the human race. Yea AMBER!

      Take a moment and walk around a pine tree, It has tree warts, nodules and other quick burn able items that are easy to remove, that catch fire. Those items are full of kerosene like saps. Pine burns bright. How does this relate to our ancestors?

      Using spears and torches our early ancestors would use a group of hunters to chase game off a cliff. Sometimes the available cliff was a waterfall. The torches would go out and the game was lost. The discovery of pine pitch on torches changed everything... now in humid conditions the torches covered in pine pitch stay lit and game or meat goes over the edge.
      Be wise enough to walk away from the nonsense around you! :thumbup:

    • This past August, while up in Maine, Kathy and I decided to have a campfire one night.
      We bought firewood from the campground we were staying at, but how to get it started?
      Well, the campground had tons of pine trees, and pine trees make pine cones and pine needles.
      The pine cones and dried out pine needles made great fire starters.

    • TrafficJam wrote:

      I've been keeping my eyes open for the pine knots that Foresight mentioned in the Making Fire thread. Is this one?
      That might be. Does it smell like turpentine? I look for a pine stump, preferably an old one and chop it out with an axe. There will be turpentine concentrated in the wood- my Dad used to call it "Light wood". Pine cones work just as well and are much easier to get.
      "Dazed and Confused"
      Recycle, re-use, re-purpose
      Plant a tree
      Take a kid hiking
      Make a difference

    • Am I the only weird one that doesn't light fires in the backcountry? I can see it for winter hiking but not in the summer. No risk of pinholes in my tent from sparks, no overall smoke smell in all my gear, and no choking fits when the wind changes and blows smoke in your face. A mini-bic for my alcohol stove is all the firestarter needed.

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Am I the only weird one that doesn't light fires in the backcountry? I can see it for winter hiking but not in the summer. No risk of pinholes in my tent from sparks, no overall smoke smell in all my gear, and no choking fits when the wind changes and blows smoke in your face. A mini-bic for my alcohol stove is all the firestarter needed.
      I can't remember ever starting a fire. I've wanted to when it was cold but tried and failed.
      Lost in the right direction.

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Am I the only weird one that doesn't light fires in the backcountry? I can see it for winter hiking but not in the summer. No risk of pinholes in my tent from sparks, no overall smoke smell in all my gear, and no choking fits when the wind changes and blows smoke in your face. A mini-bic for my alcohol stove is all the firestarter needed.
      i lit a few small fires a few times this spring just around dusk to keep the bugs away.
      i remember last year when rasty and i were camped at whigg meadow, we lit a small fire about 20 minutes before the wind suddenly kicked up and decided this was probably not a good idea.
      i was thinking about you guys reading about two yoyos that started a fire that burned down 200,000 acres because they lit a fire in high winds.
      "the suspects were apprehended, and when asked why they did it they said 'we're sorry, we didn't mean it.we promise it will never happen again'.
      the suspects were released on their own cognizance."
      its all good

    • For 4 to 6 months of the year here fires are banned. Too hot to hike in 3 to 4 of them anyway. About 1/3 of Bib track is 12 months of the year ban. The other 2/3 have fire rings with swing away hot plates and hooks for pots. Some have firewood supplied by rangers (free).
      A fire is a welcome focal point for chat and camp activity, keeps insects away and I like to keep a pot boiling on it for hot drinks. On my own, I rarely light one.
      Resident Australian, proving being a grumpy old man is not just an American trait.

    • One of my favourite trail magic things here is to hike into a hut early when I know hikers will be there, carrying in firewood and have a fire going and water boiling when people arrive along with "normal" trail magic.
      Resident Australian, proving being a grumpy old man is not just an American trait.

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Am I the only weird one that doesn't light fires in the backcountry? I can see it for winter hiking but not in the summer. No risk of pinholes in my tent from sparks, no overall smoke smell in all my gear, and no choking fits when the wind changes and blows smoke in your face. A mini-bic for my alcohol stove is all the firestarter needed.
      Same here.
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • Hmm... Interesting. We didn't have backpack stoves back in the olden days, i.e. 1958-1966.

      We used wood fires, occasionaly charcoal. I realize the wood fire thing is part of the past.

      But knowing how to build one is easy. The bark off cedar trees is good for fire starter too. You peel off, its loose, a strip, and rub it between your hands. Great tinder. Pine cones are good to. Pine needles smoke because air cannot get in and burn.

      I learned how to make a fire in rain with one match. It took me an hour to get everything ready, but I did it.

      The pieces are small, the tinder, and then larger and larger. Leaving air ways so they catch fire.

      Probably a good survival skill, outside fire season.

      An old Boy Scout handbook, say printed before 1970, should give anyone enough nfo to make a fire that works, without lighter fluid, gas, etc.

      Oh, as for the smoke in your eyes... that is caused by you being near the fire. It has to do with the wind currents near a fire, and your body interrupts those air currents. The smoke is forced towards you.
      --
      "What do you mean its sunrise already ?!", me.

    • I spent three weeks in upstate NY helping my son do some work on a mini farm he bought, any time he or his friends had brush to burn they'd call all the friends and there would be a bonfire and beer drinking, the video below is similar to what they used...theirs was a little bigger...they go all out on everything they do.


      bing.com/videos/search?q=propa…M=VIRE3&crslsl=0&efirst=1
      I may grow old but I'll never grow up.

    • SandyofPA wrote:

      Am I the only weird one that doesn't light fires in the backcountry? I can see it for winter hiking but not in the summer. No risk of pinholes in my tent from sparks, no overall smoke smell in all my gear, and no choking fits when the wind changes and blows smoke in your face. A mini-bic for my alcohol stove is all the firestarter needed.
      I don't generally light a fire. I'd rather watch a sunset or the water.
      bacon can solve most any problem.

    • I've made three fires in the past year. One was with a group, and the other two were to dry out in hypothermia weather. (One of them was I NEED FIRE RIGHT NOW, since I'd just fallen in a river and soaked everything - in 35 degree weather with sleet falling.) Clueless weekender that I am, I've had maybe two dozen bag nights in that time, so the other 21 were fireless.
      I'm not lost. I know where I am. I'm right here.

    • Campfires are becoming a rarity on the AT but I still enjoy them. I've had about a dozen bag-nights this summer on various trails in New England. We had a campfire on exactly one of those nights -- at the "Bull Run" campsite on the AT just north of Mahoosuc Notch.

      More often than not, the arguments against a fire outweigh the arguments for a fire. On the other hand, with days getting short and nights getting cold -- they start making more sense.

      As for getting a fire started -- birch bark is the stuff I look for. Pretty much never fails.